First Headlining Tour of Natasha Bedingfield

Natasha Bedingfield, one of the UK's biggest female stars, is launching her first-ever U.S. headlining tour with a 20-city trek that kicks off in Myrtle Beach, SC on May 21 and winds down in San Francisco, CA on July 10. The British songstress, whose albums have sold in excess of 6 million worldwide, has joined forces with Verizon Wireless to further connect with fans via mobile technology.

Bedingfield, whose "Unwritten" was the first single by a British female to hit No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard pop chart in 19 years, has long made female independence and inspiration the subject of her songs. Her tour includes support from two other strong female acts, the Veronicas and Kate Voegele.

"Nothing is more exciting than taking it to the stage and performing my songs live," Bedingfield said in a statement. "Having toured around the world, I couldn't be more thrilled to finally be embarking on my first tour of the U.S. with Verizon, who is always at the forefront of mobile technology and great new music. It's going to be a wicked summer run."

Barry Beach | Beach on Dateline | Montana

BILLINGS - A Montana man convicted of killing a teenager 30 years ago is in the midst of an epic battle to prove his innocence. Barry Beach's battle to overturn the murder conviction has taken on a life of its own now its making national headlines.

Just shy of her 18th birthday and only two weeks after graduating as valedictorian of her 1979 high school class, Nees was dead, a tragedy that would remain untempered for years as the official investigation plodded along fruitlessly.

But for many people affiliated with the case, that elusive figure of justice came into crisp focus one January evening in 1983 when, in a tiny police interrogation room in Monroe, La., a 21-year-old Poplar man confessed to the murder, an avowal he's maintained is unequivocally false ever since.

Then, Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath says the confession corroborates too many accurate details to be invalid, and also provides a motive. In a telephone interview McGrath said, "Only the person who committed this crime could know the details spelled out in that confession."

Family and friends trying to help Barry Beach become a free man are hoping a two-hour special on Dateline NBC Friday will help their cause. Almost thirty years after Kim Nees was brutally murdered, a Montana group is still trying to free a man they say didn't do it. "We've been through so much and we think we're really close and it just crumbles again," said motanansforjustice.com's Darlene Peterson.

Barry Beach is sitting in a cell in Deer Lodge. A cell he's slept in for the past quarter century. “He's quite an amazing individual. He doesn't dwell on this at all. He knows of his innocence. He doesn't go around poor me pity patty kind of thing," said montanansforjustice.com's Ziggy Ziegler.

In 2007 Beach testified to his innocence in the murder case that brought him a 100-year sentence with no parole. The state board of parole and pardons denied his request. Now friends and family have started a website, montanansforjustice.com.

The website features several links including an anonymous tip line. "We're not going to stop. There's evidence out there. There are people out there that know the truth," said Peterson. The group is hoping the dateline special helps the case and they pray they're not running out of time.

On Monday a district court judge in Wolf Point denied Barry Beach's request for a new trial. The NBC's Dateline special airs Friday night at 8 p.m. on KULR-8.

myfico.com | The Web Of Wires Behind Your Credit Fate

(CBS) Like most Americans, Lewis Hobgood and his wife Dina Skinner can't live without their credit cards.

"I use credit probably everyday," Skinner tells CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason

"It's just becoming such a way of life, you know," adds Hobgood.

And as we all try to keep track of all of our spending, the debt industry is keeping track of us.

A corridor in a Minneapolis office building leads to the heart of the most sophisticated credit system in the world. It's a heavily guarded web of wires where your "FICO" score is calculated. Named for the Fair Isaac Corporation which created it, the three-digit number is used by banks, credit card companies and mortgage lenders to determine whether you can get a loan and what interest rate you'll pay.

The information there includes transactions you've made, loans you have and whether you are on time.

Drawing data from the three major credit bureaus, the system processes literally billions of bits of your financial information - like how much you owe, what you earn and whether you're maxed out on your credit cards.

"So if you're a lender today, you can get instantaneous information about the credit worthiness - or the viability of a consumer's ability to pay back a loan," says FICO's Lisa Nelson.

The speed of that technology has eliminated your local bank officer and allowed the credit markets to explode.

"And when we saw that start to happen, we said, 'oh this is bigger than we ever imagined,'" says mathematician Larry Rosenberger.

Rosenberger, using analysis that showed human behavior tends to be consistent over time, helped develop the FICO scores back in 1989.

"They're not perfect, but they work with a level of precision that can't be gotten any other way," he says.

The major credit card companies use the scores to judge hundreds of millions of customers - to decide whether to raise your interest rate, or even close your account.

"It's a very controversial topic," says credit expert John Ulzheimer. "Most large credit issuers will grade their customers once a month. The majority of the time, the customer has no clue it's being done."

But you can find out your score just by going to myFICO.com. It will range between 300 and 850, with anything over 750 considered healthy.
The Web Of Wires Behind Your Credit Fate
"What you calculate here has a lot of impact on people's lives," Mason tells FICO's Nelson.

"Yeah, it does," says Nelson. "On their financial lives at least."

And it has made debt a booming business.

Mitchell to Acquire Fair Isaac's Workers' Comp Medical Cost Business

Claims management and information firm Mitchell International, Inc. reports it has agreed to acquire the workers compensation medical cost containment and bill review business of Fair Isaac Corp.
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Mitchell currently supplies the property and casualty claims and auto collision repair industries with information, workflow and management services. This acqusition will allow the company to expand into workers' compensation claims arena.

Alex Sun, president and CEO of Mitchell, said he sees an opportunity to unite the "collective expertise of our auto and workers compensation teams..."

Fair Isaac offers consulting, analytics and software to help businesses make decisions. Fair Isaac also runs the consumer credit scoring Web site, www.myFICO.com.

President Hu: China, US share responsibility for world economy

BEIJING - Chinese President Hu Jintao said here on Wednesday that China and the United States, as important members of the global economic system, had a shared responsibility to safeguard the health, stability and development of the world economy.

Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) shakes hands with Henry M. Paulson, special representative of US President George W. Bush and the US Treasury Secretary, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, April 2, 2008. [Xinhua]

Hu made the remarks during a meeting with visiting US Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson in the Great Hall of the People.

Hu spoke positively of the recent growth of Sino-American economic and trade cooperation and bilateral relations, noting that the development of these ties served both nations' interests and promoted world peace and prosperity.

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"China will join hands with the United States to boost exchanges and communication, expand strategic mutual trust and appropriately handle sensitive issues in an effort to step up bilateral constructive and cooperative relations", Hu told Paulson, according to a press release from the Foreign Ministry after the meeting.

Hu also hailed the bilateral Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) as "a success" and stressed that the three consecutive dialogues had already played an important role in promoting ties. He said that China attached great importance to bilateral consultative mechanisms such as the SED.

China would intensify communication and coordination with the US on macroeconomic policies, continuously lift the level of bilateral economic and trade cooperation and make joint efforts with the United States to maintain the growth of the world economy and the stability of the international financial system, Hu said.

Paulson, who came to China as a special envoy of US President George W. Bush, briefed Hu about the latest developments in the US economy and his views on U.S.-China trade relations.

"The SED has made and is making progress", Paulson said, highlighting the view that sound growth of both economies would yield mutual benefit.

Growth of overall bilateral ties was important to both sides, Paulson said, and he expressed the hope that the two nations would push forward the SED and other aspects of bilateral relations.

Paulson, who arrived in Beijing earlier on Wednesday for a two-day visit, was also scheduled to meet Premier Wen Jiabao and other senior officials.

Prior to his visit, Paulson told reporters he intended to visit China because of the change of leadership after China's 11th National People's Congress session. He said that he would meet with his counterparts, new leaders, and the president and premier to talk about the SED.

Launched in September 2006, the SED, a biannual economic strategic dialogue, serves as a platform to discuss long-term, strategic and comprehensive issues in the bilateral trade relationship.


Source: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-04/02/content_6587547.htm